Two new zombie games for your smartphone, tablet

Marc SaltzmanUSA TODAY

Published: Thursday, October 31, 2013 at 11:23 a.m.

Last Modified: Thursday, October 31, 2013 at 11:23 a.m.

Between record-breaking audience numbers for AMC’s The Walking Dead, “zombie runs” taking place all over the country and films like World War Z raking in more than a half-billion in theaters, it appears our love affair with the undead is at an all-time high.

Heck, there’s even an Archie Comics called Afterlife with Archie and a zombie-themed restaurant in Des Moines.

Talk about taking a bite into pop culture.

You might not be too surprised, then, to learn zombie games are attacking your favorite smartphone or tablet, too.

The sequel to Dead Trigger — a first-person shooter with more than 23 million downloads — once again challenges you to stave off hoards of the undead using an arsenal of powerful weapons. As a member of the Global Resistance, you’ll travel the world to take on varied missions, earn money and ammo for your efforts, and avoid getting bitten as you take down blood-thirsty enemies one by one.

Along with many different mission types, timed challenges and locations to unlock, you’ll also gain access to your own personal hideout and interact with characters who’ll help you, including an engineer, scientist, medic and gunsmith.

Controlling the game is a breeze with its virtual joystick: the left side of the screen is for movement while the right side moves your head around and aims your weapon. There’s also support for optional gamepads, such as the clever MOGA products for Android.

The game is free to play, but be aware there are optional in-app purchases to buy virtual gold, starting from $2.99 for a “fistful.” Also, the app is a hefty 245 megabytes (MB) at the Google Play store and 321MB for owners of Apple iOS devices.

You’ve probably played “Match 3” -style puzzle games before, such as Bejeweled and Candy Crush Saga, but how about one tied to a zombie apocalypse?

That’s what you’ll get with Zombie! Zombie! Zombie!, a free iOS adventure that fuses the accessibility of a Match-3 puzzler with zombie-blasting carnage.

Strange? You bet. But it works, too — for the most part.

You’re part of a gun-toting posse, who vows to rid the world of flesh-eating zombies. To do so, you need to tap on three of the same type of zombie in order to have the squad shoot them down. The bigger the triangle you can make with the three zombies, essentially roping in a large number of them, the more damage you’ll do on the entire battlefield. If the zombies reach your group of heroes near the bottom of the screen, you’ll lose one of your valuable survivors.

Part of the fun is using the environment to help take them down, such as an electrical blast, a runaway helicopter propeller, rolling turret or calling in a nuke strike. There are more than 50 different “power-ups” to discover, in total, and a shop to acquire new goodies using coins earned throughout the game.

Along with the story campaign, you can also try your hand at the challenging Survival Mode, which delivers a never-ending wave of zombies that approach your clan.

There are different kinds of zombies, too, but they all tend to act the same â(euro) ” unlike the stellar strategy game, Plants vs. Zombies 2 (also a free download for iOS and Android devices). That is, this game might’ve delivered more depth had the zombies brought their own unique abilities instead of just looking differently.

Another beef: even if you choose not to sign in with your Facebook ID, you’ll be constantly asked to do so throughout the course of the game.

The game is free, but there are optional in-app purchases ranging from $0.99 cents to $9.99.

Overall, Zombie! Zombie! Zombie! is a fun and free hybrid that delivers both a puzzle game and zombie shooter in one.

Contact Saltzman at techcomments@usatoday.com.

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